having the rope fall out of my harness 2m from the top of the ANU indoor wall cause i had neglected to tie in properly. thankfully i could "top out" the route (while swearing profusly) and get lowered on another rope...

when a new tie in system was promptly instigated it was dubbed "the clancy *almost* memorial tie in system" which culminated in me being told about "this guy that didnt tie and the rope fell out...etc" by another climber who didnt know it was me...

paranoid about checking my knot doesnt come close to how often i check...

On 25/10/2005 DaCrux wrote:>Getting benighted on top of Blockbuster after going up Kaiser/Resignation>and Ivan. Having to scramble down in the dark and do a 25m and then a 45m>rappel. We did the first one with one rope and the second one on double>ropes. On one of them (have a feeling it was the fist one as we had 50m>ropes) we didn’t have knots on the end of the rope – which was just as>well, as the rope was just long enough, and we would have been stuck dangling>half a metre off the ground. It was pitch black and we only had 1 head>torch. On the second rappel one of the ropes got stuck on a chicken head>and my sister’s bf had to prusik 5-6m up the rope – in the dark (as my>sis and I had the torch) to untangle it. This is my recollection of what>happened anyway. I was dehydrated as we only had a small amount of water>and we all felt bad drinking it. I’d left my jacket at the bottom of Kaiser>as it was pretty warm – but I was hypothermic by the time we got to Blockbuster>and didn’t really know what was going on – I think I was close to hallucinating>as everything was spinning and I could feel things crawling on my skin.>A mini epic.

Hey E.

Yeah the knots would have been there but I had done the rap with that rope heaps of times before so knew it was the perfect length. I just remember being stinking hot all day in my windstopper in the sun (your two friends didn't get why I was wearing it) and then being so grateful when the wind picked up and the sun went down. The whole prussik in the dark thing was kinda interesting...One reason I use the above device backup at times.

Way back before I knew anything about climbing with ropes I was helping to put a roof on the slot bunkers at Tarong Power station. I was working with 30 other guys and I was there for 6 months. The roof was huge over these coal bunkers. We were up around 40 metres over steeply sloping concrete and the roofs pitch was around 35 degrees. Just steep enough that you couldn`t walk on it comfortably in your volleys without slipping and skating all over the place. We had to put an aluminium roof on it. So the main roof went on by way of a huge set of backdoor steps as a scaffold which we used to drag over the roof, place one set of sheets and then winch it along to again place one set of sheets.

The scaffold was setup such that no worker was exposed to a fall through any gap. The spec called for isolation tape between the top of the purlin and the underside of the sheets. Guess who had to go out ahead of the scaffold and tape up the purlins. The purlins were 1800mm apart and that was quite a stretch when you are 40 metres above the deck with nothing below you and nothing connecting you to the purlins.

But that really wasn`t the scariest thing I had to do. There was a birdcage type of arrangement way out the end of this huge roof and it was way up high on the ridge. The roof in that location was very short with no scaffold as edge protection so it was left to the gamest two roofers, me and a Kiwi to clamber out there and hang on by our fingernails and stick this rooof on. I dropped my hammer at one stage and it sailed down and blew a hole in the extremely hard concrete.

Hee hee, one of the blokes on that job was caught sleeping on the conveyor belt, if it had started it would have chucked him off the end and to his death.

There is no way that you could get away with this nowadays. We went on to a mine site recently and were given a good talking to by the safety nazi on site and he told us that if any of us hurt ourselves he would kill us, he wasn`t joking either. I reckon I`ve done more dangerous things in my job than I have ever done climbing recreationally.

The most dangerous thing I did was probably the first 18 months of my climbing career, when Frog and Crookneck were the places to go. 1 cam, and 1/2 a dozen wires and no quick draws, combined with having no idea, but being to stupid to be scared. There were no “how to books” or gyms, and the 4 or 5 other people who climbed in the local area at the time were too cool to provide any guidance (they still get much mileage over my first ever lead climb, 23 years later!).

The most scared I’ve ever been was prusiking up a stuck abseil rope during a thunderstorm in the Pyrenees. Explosions of light and noise like artillery fire, the free end of the rope whipping around like an angry snake, approaching darkness, being cold and wet, and still having 4 or 5 more raps to go. I was just waiting to get fried.

My first attempt on Sandinista. Having failed and fallen just below the final roof I hooked an old death beena (previously dropped) onto a single old fixed wire. I back cleaned the second half of the route back to the half way rest ledge. I then threaded my second orange 9mm rope through an old green sling attached to an old piton. I back cleaned the first half of the climb then jumped off from about 8 - 10m height. With the pendulon and rope stretch I pulled up about 2m above a large rock. At the time I thought it was pretty cool. A couple of months later I didn't think it was so cool when I noticed about 2m of nylon burn on my rope with fibres of green sling.

Our first day at Devils Tower in Wyoming. We’d climbed a 3 pitch 5.10 hand crack in the late afternoon, and had one scramble pitch to top out. Neil & Poul were keen to top out and check the view. I was keen to abseil and avoid getting benighted.

Neil chose to continue despite my complaints. I opted to stay and set up the rap. After 30 minutes I was pissed off and decided to start the rap and wait at the 2nd pitch anchor. Sadly I missed the anchor on the way down, and ended up at the end of the rope. I hadn’t knotted the rope end and was just hanging with little gear and no prussics. Below me was about a 60 m drop.

In a panic I located a bolt just below me. I reached down and clipped into the bolt and let go of my rap rope – which shot away from me as I fell onto the bolt. I waited for about another 20 minutes with no sign of the others rapping down. In this time my anger and stupidity increased. I decided to unclip from the bolt and try to down-solo about 15m to get to a point where scrambling off was possible. Soon I’d backclimbed a small overhang via a flaring hand-crack. By now my arms and legs were shaking with fear and exertion. I attempted to re-climb the overhang but couldn’t – I was too pumped.

In the end I had to keep back-climbing. Some sections I just jammed my arms in the crack and slid downwards. I remember shaking quite a lot when I did reach the ledge below.To make matters worse, I had to wait for the others anyway. I had to fetch head torches to help them down the final scrambling descent in the dark.

this is not so much climbing but............................
Treble cone 1993 (I was 17) - dead icy
The T-Bar at NW end of the hill had some reasonable less ice right next to T-Bar Track
so here I am short turning a top speed right next to the track and I mean next to, skiiers on the T-Bar could have punched me in the nose and probably should have.
Low and Behold I clipped a boulder of ice and fell right on the near on top of a crest where no skiers/boarders could see me .
I flat on my back and picking up some serious pace, as terminal velocity approaches and I di[p below the crest a snowbaorder with no time to react is in my path.
AS I waited to be seriously F(*ked up I instinctively bring my arms to cover my face and prepared for impact. By the luckiest of chances the snowboard went between my back and my backpack and slashed ricght through the straps. Naturally I took the snowboarder out. Thankfully he was uninjured just shaken. But it's something I'll never forget.................

On 25/10/2005 Clancy wrote:>thankfully i could "top>out" the route (while swearing profusly) and get lowered on another rope...

Ah well nevermind maybe next time

Lots of these stories are about the old abseil, no wonder climbers dont like those dicks who abseil all the time!

My story is also of an abseil. Dan and I were lost on top of south butteress of booromba. We decided to abseil and go home. We could not see the bottom so I tied a mega big knot in the end and threw the 60m rope which we tied to a tree.

Dan abseiled off first and promtly droped the walkie talkie wich we needed cause the wind was up. Dan went outa sight and then faint curseing issued from below along with jerking rope movements and then the rope started swaying and then whent slack. I asumed he was on terra firmer.

So I abseiled. I went pretty quick down the rope and as I abseiled past a ledge to my left I spotted dan. Weird I thought why is he up there as I hit the knot in the end of the rope.
Dan had realised the rope was short of the ground and swung accros the cliff to a ledge and unclipped. So here I was with my device jamed with the knot and still about 10m of the ground. I had prusic loops but could not stand in either as they were to short to reach from above the knot! So after plenty of curseing I managed to get un jammed. I had to untie the knot and swing accross the cliff to another ledge, However the ledge was about a meter off the end off the rope so after much swinging, swearing and courage building I swung out and let the rope through the device. I hit the ledge safe with my heart beating and adrenalin pumping! Then had to go back up and move the rope to rescue dan!

Ha ha! If only it they were as good as approuch shoes! They were a pair of converse ratty skate shoes
- my poverty 'aiding' shoes of choice (they matched my home-made 3-step etriers). Anyhow, I was
aiding the 6th pitch (i think?) - the one straight off the deck of Big Grassy. Pretty easy aiding up a big
flake in the middle section. I aided up a few moves not leaving any gear behind then got a sinker nut in
slot and and high stepped up. The flake was really good, and there were some obvious footholds...
hmm i thought - i reckon i coudl free a few moves here saving me some time. I took my feet out of the
etiers and leaned back on the flake to start laybacking up it (surely it couldn't be much harder than 16
or so i thought). As I leaned back and unweighted the aid piece at my feet my foot tapped the wire, it
levered then popped out of its placment - sliding down the rope below. Suddenly I was in a layback
position - on a grade 24 pitch 100m up Ozy with my last pro about 7m below - a ledge fall onto big
grassy was a very real possibilty! I looked around desperatly for a gear placment at eye level. Nothing
was obvious. I rapidly became pumped, my crappy converse shoes started smearing off the footholds,
the exposure was maxing me out. I began to panic... the weight of a full aid rack, three ropes and
assorted jumars weren't doign me any favours either! No pro was forthcoming asd i despertaly tried to
get anythign tpo fit the flared flake. My only hope was to re-place the same wire in the placment below
me and downclimb to it. I managed to get a wire, sling it, and drop it into the slot from above and fiddle
it into place with one of my feet (!!). I then powerlaybacked back down a few moves and clipped into
the wire. I was safe again. That was my one and only attempt to free-climb Ozy in street shoes...

My story might be a little confusing but basically leading indoors is the setting... At the top I clipped the SAFETY sling into the rope instead of my harness by mistake and promptly called "safe" to my belayer. As I was being taken off belay, I noticed my weight wasn't exactly what you'd call statically balanced and I realised quick smart what I'd done.

Needless to say, had i been taken off belay immediately or had I just not noticed the rope movement in time, I would have had a very interesting ground fall :(

So now I'm abnormally paranoid about clipping, belay stations and being 150% sure of things, which will probably one day save my life :P

And this one time, at band camp, I was rappelling down a wall on a munter hitch, and the carabiner wouldn’t lock, but i rapped anyway, and I heard a dreaded click, and I could smell burning. So I let go and saw that my backup prusik was holding me. My hands were badly burned and I now always use a backup prusik.

(bump)
Having a slow day?
How about a bit of thread necromancy, due to the fact that I found re-reading it interesting, and others might too.
The experiences within it are no less valid 8 years down the track, and the Chocky readership being larger these days might garner some more interesting replies.

Post edit:
Under the floor boards in the future On 13/05/2013 patto wrote:>Bringing back the dead from over 7 years ago? You'd even get kicked out f the necromancers guild for that one!

~> You are just jealous that your membership application was rejected.
Heh, heh, heh.
=====================================================================

Climbing a 14 pitch route of the Squamish Chief called Angels Crest in a blizzard with a light rack, light clothing and not enough time. One snow covered slab pitch near the top was going to end in broken bones if I slipped, and I spent 20 minutes standing on a little hold before committing my weight to another. It was pure luck that I didn't fall, and the consequences would have been serious for my partner as well. Oh, I had just had a baby too.